1. Field of Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate in general to wireless peripheral devices. More specifically, the embodiments of the invention relate to methods and systems that securely connect wireless peripheral devices to processing devices.
2. Description of the Background Art
Various input and output devices, such as printers, keyboards, mice, fax machines, copiers, scanners, telephones, headphones, goggles, digital cameras, etc., are becoming networked. These devices can communicate with processing devices on various types of networks, such as local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), and personal area network (PAN). Processing devices can be personnel computers, general-purpose computers, and so forth.
A high-end printer may be attached to the processing device via a network interface. The network interface includes a full transmission control protocol Internet protocol (TCP/IP) stack and a controlling microprocessor. Similarly, an input device such as a mouse, keyboard, etc., can be attached to a personal computer by means of universal serial bus (USB), infrared (IR), or wireless protocol such as Bluetooth, instead of a dedicated serial port connector. Different ways of connecting peripherals by using shared network media result in various types of security problems, depending on the media, threat model, consequences of a successful attack, and the nature of the device itself.
For example, a high-end network-attached printer may be enabled for monitoring usage or restricting access. Such a device has a computer that can be programmed to implement request and response protocols, and authenticating sessions (printing requests or administrative requests). These protocols may be similar to protocols used by other client/server systems. The high-end network-attached printers can authenticate users by using Windows NT™ credentials, Kerberos, etc. The username and password may be verified by using techniques such as remote area dial in user service (RADIUS), lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) servers, etc.
Input peripheral devices such as wireless keyboards and mice pose an access-control problem. A wireless mouse or keyboard attached to a computer may affect inputs to other computers. This problem can be solved by embedding public-key encryption-capable microcontrollers and biometric sensors in these devices. The access can then be restricted by means of an elaborate combination of biometric identity and secure socket layer (SSL)-quality encryption on the data flow from the input device to the computer. However, biometric and SSL-quality encryption requires additional hardware with the input peripheral devices. The additional hardware results in increased cost of the input peripheral devices.
The conventional techniques described above are not easy to use. Moreover, these techniques involve encryption requirements that are not met by the existing input peripheral devices.